Wesley Sails for America

1735. Tuesday, October 14.—Mr. Benjamin Ingham, of Queen College, Oxford; Mr. Charles Delamotte, son of a merchant, in London,
who had offered himself some days before; my brother, Charles Wesley, and myself, took boat for Gravesend, in order to embark
for Georgia.

Our end in leaving our native country was not to avoid want (God having given us plenty of temporal blessings) nor to gain
the dung or dross of riches or honor; but singly this—to save our souls; to live wholly to the glory of God. In the afternoon
we found the “Simmonds” off Gravesend and immediately went on board.

Friday, 17.—I began to learn German in order to converse with the Germans, six-and-twenty of whom we had on board. On Sunday,
the weather being fair and calm, we had the morning service on quarterdeck. I now first preached extempore and then administered
the Lord’s Supper to six or seven communicants.

Monday, 20.—Believing the denying ourselves, even in the smallest instances, might, by the blessing of God, be helpful to
us, we wholly left off the use of flesh and wine and confined ourselves to vegetables food—chiefly rice and biscuit.

Tuesday, 21.—We sailed from Gravesend. When we were past about half the Goodwin Sands, the wind suddenly failed. Had the
calm continued till ebb, the ship had probably been lost. But the gale sprang up again in an hour, and carried us into the
Downs.

We now began to be a little regular. Our common way of living was this: From four in the morning till five each of us used
private prayer. From five to seven we read the Bible together, carefully comparing it (that we might not lean to our own understandings)
with the writings of the earliest ages. At seven we breakfasted. At eight were the public prayers. From nine to twelve I usually
learned German, and Mr. Delamotte, Greek. My brother wrote sermons, and Mr. Ingham
instructed the children. At twelve we met to give an account of one another what we had done since our last meeting, and
what we designed to do before our next. About one we dined.